 to the company's eyesight, and assisted me up to bed with
such a strong hand that I seemed to have fifty boots on, and to be dangling them
all against the edges of the stairs. My state of mind, as I have described it,
began before I was up in the morning, and lasted long after the subject had died
out, and had ceased to be mentioned saving on exceptional occasions.
 

                                  Chapter VII

At the time when I stood in the churchyard, reading the family tombstones, I had
just enough learning to be able to spell them out. My construction even of their
simple meaning was not very correct, for I read wife of the Above as a
complimentary reference to my father's exaltation to a better world; and if any
one of my deceased relations had been referred to as »Below,« I have no doubt I
should have formed the worst opinions of that member of the family. Neither were
my notions of the theological positions to which my Catechism bound me, at all
accurate; for, I have a lively remembrance that I supposed my declaration that I
was to »walk in the same all the days of my life,« laid me under an obligation
always to go through the village from our house in one particular direction, and
never to vary it by turning down by the wheelwright's or up by the mill.
    When I was old enough, I was to be apprenticed to Joe, and until I could
assume that dignity I was not to be what Mrs. Joe called Pompeyed or (as I
render it) pampered. Therefore, I was not only odd-boy about the forge, but if
any neighbour happened to want an extra boy to frighten birds, or pick up
stones, or do any such job, I was favoured with the employment. In order,
however, that our superior position might not be compromised thereby, a
money-box was kept on the kitchen mantel-shelf, into which it was publicly made
known that all my earnings were dropped. I have an impression that they were to
be contributed eventually towards the liquidation of the National Debt, but I
know I had no hope of any personal participation in the treasure.
    Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt kept an evening school in the village; that is to
say, she was a ridiculous old woman of limited means and unlimited infirmity,
who used to go to sleep from six to seven every evening, in the society of youth
who paid twopence per week each, for the improving opportunity of seeing her do
it. She rented a
